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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: OKLAHOMA CITYMarch 17, 2010Zahir CarringtonMarquis HallC.J. McCollumBrett ReedOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA THE MODERATOR: Final team to the podium from Lehigh, student athletes, Marquis Hall, C.J. McCollum, and Xavier Carrington. Raise your hands and wait for the microphone, please. We're ready to go right now. Q. C.J., I just wanted to ask you a little bit about No. 1, Brady Morningstar, one of Kansas's top defenders. Talk a little bit about going against him and Kansas defense in general. C.J. MCCOLLUM: Morningstar is a great player. Kansas is a great team. I'm just going to approach it like any other game and just play my game. I know that they're all great defenders. So just going to be a tough night, but other than that, I'm just going to play my game. Conditional page break: 2 THE MODERATOR: More questions? Q. For any of you guys, what do you think are going to be the most important things of being able to be in this game? MARQUIS HALL: I would definitely say transition defense and rebounding. Obviously, Kansas is a big team, they're pretty deep. So if we can defensive rebound the ball and get back -- not allow them to get easy baskets, that will definitely help us out. ZAHIR CARRINGTON: Add on to that. That game is pretty much not different from any or game. We've been able to lock teams up and take away what they like to do. With Kansas that would be on high/low and some of their ball screen action, keep that in track as well as transition defense, we'll be fine. With us this year, we won games. We've played well on defense holding teams, you know, under 70, 75 points around there. We've given up more than that, that's when we've struggled. That's kind of whatever we're look to go do and keep the score somewhere around there. Q. Can you just talk about going against a team that is widely recognized as the most complete team in the country, as confident you guys might be, is there anything daunting about that? ZAHIR CARRINGTON: No. Honestly, we step on the court, you know, everybody is the same. There's no 1/16. We've been playing basketball our entire lives. We've worked just as hard as anybody else. You have to have the utmost confidence in your ability. If we were to come down here and think we're going to play hard or, you know, come and thinking we're going to lose, I would rather not come at all. There's no daunting or big shot over this game for us. We're going out there. We're happy to have an opportunity to be a part of this, but we're coming to win. Q. Guys, still this is history you're chasing. Do you think about history, no No. 16 has ever beaten a No. 1. Do you think about Lehigh once again playing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament? MARQUIS HALL: Not really. Kind of like Xavier was talking, we're looking forward to the challenge of playing a great team like Kansas. At the same time, we're still approaching it like another game, going through our same routine, practice, watching film and things like that. We're not necessarily looking at the 1 versus 16. We're just trying to make sure we stay focused on what we like to do. Q. What you guys do today, Lehigh hasn't been here since 2004. ZAHIR CARRINGTON: We spent some time together as a team earlier today, kind of slept in a little bit. Long day of travel yesterday, but breakfast, hung out, went bowling as a team, more time at the hotel. Then we got into film and things like that before here. It's a little, you know, unorthodox schedule with us with the interviewing and that kind of stuff. For the most part, everything else remained the same. We're still preparing as a regular game. Q. Does any team that you've played this season remind you of Kansas? Is there anything about Kansas's game that might be more challenging than what you've seen so far? MARQUIS HALL: Not necessarily remind us of Kansas. You know, we've played some pretty good teams as far as Richmond and things like that. Kansas is so deep, we probably haven't seen a team exactly like them. What was the second part, I'm sorry? Q. Is there anything about KU's game that is different or something you haven't seen more challenging than what you've seen so far? MARQUIS HALL: I don't think so. We've seen a lot of different things throughout the year. We've played against a lot of different teams, lot of different styles. We'll be well prepared for some things that they throw at us. Q. Are any of you guys aware of what happened to Kansas the last time they played in this building against a Patriot League team? ZAHIR CARRINGTON: Yeah. Somebody said they lost. Q. Have you heard the story, or has the coach brought it up? ZAHIR CARRINGTON: Not our coach, but you find different things out online and stuff like that, and, you know, we've heard that we got kind of like got that on our side, whatever, you know. Last time they played a Patriot team in the tournament this building on all that, March 18th, blah, blah, blah. It's not about that at all. It's two completely different teams. I don't think it's going to matter much come tomorrow night. Q. You guys just kind of tell me what do you feel is going to be the biggest stretch of the game, early on, they come out and try to punch you early? Or is it going to be later on in the game when their depth starts to kick in a little bit? C.J. MCCOLLUM: I think it's going to be all of the above. We have to start off well and be ready to play from the jump. We're always going to have to close out the game as well. It won't matter if we start off good or end bad or visa versa. We have to play a well-rounded game from the start and finish strong as well. Q. T J, Bill Self of Kansas said that you're capable of scoring 30 points against him. How do you feel about that, and what's your approach as you head into your biggest game? C.J. MCCOLLUM: He's a very smart man (laughter). I'm not approaching it like that the all. I'm going to go out there and play my game. If I score 30, it happens. If I don't, no big deal. I'm going to do whatever is necessary for my team to win. THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for the student athletes? Q. Marquis, I hear you guys are seniors, this is it. You get the chance to play again a Kansas team that is No. 1, and you guys are in your first NCAA Tournament. Can you just break it down, the anxiousness, the exuberance going through your guys' hearts right now? ZAHIR CARRINGTON: For me it's a little kind of like a load off coming off of winning the Patriot League Championship. I was probably more anxious for that. Going into this week has been a lot more relaxed because there's no pressure. We're not expected to win. Nobody is really expecting too much from us. So going to this game, I'm just, you know, preparing as a regular game and, you know, looking at film, scouting out the guys, I'll be guarding a little bit more and just get ready to go out there and win. MARQUIS HALL: For me, you know, I'm not just happy to be here. I'm looking forward to the challenge of playing a great team in Kansas, and it's our first time here. So we want to step up to the stage and show what we're capable of and represent the league well. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Thanks guys. Now joined by Coach Reed of Lehigh and make an opening statement and take questions. This is our final visitor to the podium today. COACH REED: Well, obviously our team is very proud to be participating in the NCAA Tournament. We feel it is a tremendous honor, not only for our institution, Lehigh University, but also the Patriot League. We hope to represent both extremely well. We're very fortunate to have one of the top academic universities in the entire country. We also have tremendous student athletes who really embrace both ends of that responsibility and do a wonderful job in the classroom. They're very goal oriented, very focused on their future. But as we've been able to demonstrate this year, we also have a team that is extremely talented. With that has come a regular season Patriot League Championship, Patriot League Tournament Championship by pretty significant numbers and most wins in school history. Although we're very happy to be here and very happy to represent our University in the NCAA Tournament, we are also very clearly coming here to compete, and although the odds may be stacked against us and history doesn't favor us, we have the type of combination of talent and character that could create a special moment and special opportunity in this tournament, which is obviously what March Madness is all about. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Patriot League team is both scored and beaten on two different occasions Kansas in this tournament. Is there anything you can take from that as an inspiration from your team? COACH REED: We're really proud of the accomplishments of our member institutions, both in the NCAA and NIT with post-season wins. But, at the same token, we've got to be focused in on the moment at hand because it could be prettying daunting to look back at history and try to find examples of greatness, because you look no further than one of the top programs in the country in Kansas. If we look back beyond Thursday night, whether it's the 30 wins, the rich tradition and history, we may be setting a trap for ourselves to try to find one gleaning example when they have so much history and so much -- so many accomplishments in their back pocket as well. So honestly, I've told my team and I think I hope we understand this, that the records, the history, none of that really matters come Thursday night, because both teams are 0-0, and the only thing that really needs to be accomplished is being at our best during that moment and creating the own history that we might be able to own up to. Q. Whether it's you or someone else, what it's going to take for a 16 seed to knock off a top seed? COACH REED: Well, I really believe it comes with the proper mentality. Players have to understand that the game is no different than any other game that you would put on your schedule at the beginning of the year and have the intention of going into that game to win. Although there's a lot of limelight, there's new environments, there's a lot of excitement, this game is a game that we are coming to compete with. So I think having the mentality of approaching the game in the proper perspective. I also believe that having a great deal of confidence and belief in yourself individually as an individual player and also as a collective unit as a team is really important. Then it comes down to those basic fundamental concepts that are true whether it's elementary school basketball, junior high basketball, high school basketball, college basketball, even professional basketball. You have to take care of the fundamentals. No 1 on offense, you have to value the basketball and make your get quality shot opportunities on each possession. You also have to play unselfishly. Although we'll ask some of our players to play some of the best games that they will have throughout the course of this year, and we'll need three, four, five of them to do that collectively in order to be able to accomplish this, they have to be able to be focused and do that together. It's not going to be one player that's ever going to beat Kansas or a No. 1 seed. It's going to be a collection of individuals who are playing to the best of their ability defensively. You have to be able to control the game and limit some easier shot opportunities. Transition defense comes first and foremost to make sure that you're holding your opponents to lower percentage shot opportunities. A team like ours that's giving up size, both in height and weight will really have to be cognizant of defending the interior and limiting some of their high percentage shots from there. The final part and finishing any defensive possession is being able to rebound the basketball and make sure that you can get the rewards of your hard work and your defensive intensity by holding them to one shot. Q. In 2004 you were an assistant coach on that team. You never made it to the actual field of 64. Can you talk about the actual aura of this day and just being in this building getting ready to go to show time tomorrow night? COACH REED: Well, it's a wonderful feeling. It's a wonderful sense of accomplishment for our student athletes. We have a core nucleus of players who have really given everything that they have into this year. We've also had tremendous leadership and a great deal unselfishness from in particular the senior class that have helped mold and form this. Having a chance to represent Lehigh in 2004 was a wonderful thing, but, at the same token, that experience, whether it's called the opening round game or the playing game, still left an opportunity that something needed to be proven in order to actually be a participant in the NCAA Tournament. I don't want to take anything away from that team or that experience, because, in essence, we were in the NCAA Tournament, but when our players had the daunting task of turning around from a Sunday afternoon game, getting on a flight the very next morning, making the travel arrangements shortly after a selection show, we didn't ever have the opportunity to bask in that Patriot League championship and, unfortunately, still had something to prove in order to get us to this moment. So right now we're almost a step ahead from where we were in 2004. That step ahead is obviously very gratifying, but, you know, comes with its own unique set of challenges to make sure that we stay focused, we continue to move forward, and hopefully be able to capitalize on a moment that's been given to us. Q. Coach, C.J. has had a pretty great season, especially for a freshman. What makes him so special as an offensive player? COACH REED: C.J. has had a wonderful year. He's exceeded most reasonable expectations for any sort of freshman whatsoever. I've been very proud that he started the year playing very solid basketball, was contributing to our program immensely, averaging about 15 points per game, I believe it was, in non-conference game. For him to elevate his game throughout the course of our league when opponents are so familiar with you and average 23.5 points per game in League play is almost incredible. C.J. has an excellent shooting touch. He has deep range. When he releases the basketball, as a coach you have a great deal of confidence that it's going in. But at same token he has very good ball skills. He's got a shiftiness and craftiness about him. He's create opportunities off the dribble not only for himself and he finishes in a variety of ways, because but he's also shown an unselfish nature to get other people involved and create opportunities for them as well. Q. Their Kansas team is generally recognized as the most complete team in the country. As you've looked at them here in the last few days, do they look like that to you? Have you seen a team much like them either this year or in past years? COACH REED: They definitely are a complete team, having a chance to watch them on film and get more intimately familiar with the way they process through things, the players, their talent, their personnel. Looking at it, it's really hard to find a lot of weaknesses. There's a reason why they're so well respected nationally both by the media and by coaches to put them in a No. 1 seed and give them in all -- for all intents and purposes, the moniker of the No. 1 team in the country. I think they've earned that through their body of work, their commitment to what they do, they're extremely well coached. They have a leader in their point guard, who is tremendous. They have interior presence that is very tough, both offensively and defensively, and they have wings and forwards who cannot only shoot the basketball but also can drive and/and create offense for themselves. They really are a complete team, not only on the offensive end but they defend very well. That's really one of the things that have separated them from a lot of their competition throughout the course of the season. THE MODERATOR: Do we have any more questions? Up front. Q. Last question, Brett. Office pools all across the country, do you think anybody picked you guys to win? COACH REED: Well, if they ever had any money riding on it, probably would have changed some of their selections because it's probably not the most logical pick. It's probably not the most probable pick. It's probably not the most popular pick, by any means. All that is really aside. It doesn't really matter what anybody else thinks except for the individuals who are on our team, who are within our coaching staff and who have been through the process of what we've done. This is not a popularity contest that we're facing on Thursday night. It's an opportunity for two teams to square off face-to-face and give their best, whatever that best might look like. We have an opportunity in that night to make history, to do something that is so special and so incredible that people will be talking about it potentially for a long time to come. And if this hadn't been done before, the stage, the magnitude of that accomplish, would be diminished a little bit. There's something to be said for potentially being the first to ever do anything, and that hopefully a role that we would really relish, and I've told our team the whole way through, it's going to happen at some point. There are upsets in the NCAA Tournament. There's a reason why it's called March Madness, and I would simply tell them why not us and why not now? Because our combination of talent, our combination of character, our combination of determination and everything that we've been able to display throughout the course of the year gives us an opportunity to hopefully rise to that moment. And, make no mistake about it, we will have to rise to that moment if we're -- to be able to accomplish that, but on any given night, anything can happen. THE MODERATOR: Do we have final question for Coach Reed? Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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